


When Dreams Die

by Folkpunk



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Character Death, Hurt Spencer Reid, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26788060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Folkpunk/pseuds/Folkpunk
Summary: Spencer was a hero. Yet the end of his story reflected none of that.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	When Dreams Die

**Author's Note:**

> Not great also I love Spencer. However, him dying would have ended the show better.

People love to imagine death as a quick thing. Something that will come in the dead of night, and they’ll just slip away. Maybe they imagine it as triumphant, something to be remembered by. They always forget how more often than not it's painful, and cruel, and most of all unfair. 

Spencer didn’t die as the hero he often was, he died a normal man just on his way home. Everyone assumed it would be a hail of bullets or an unsub with a grudge, but in the end it was as simple as a drunk driver. A man that saved 100s of people, and suffered his entire life didn't get the ending he deserved. He didn’t get to live and have kids, or tell his team goodbye. He wasn’t surrounded by friends comforting him, he was trapped in a burning car; in pain. 

Life isn’t fair, there was no karma or lesson. Good people die every day, and the team knew that best. The job had hardened their view of the world. Still they had always thought that maybe for the youngest and brightest of our team at least would get his happy ending. Something he deserved.

The worst part of dying for Spencer wasn’t the pain, he was used to that. It was being alone. He was scared in that car, scared not because he was dying but because there was still so much to tell everyone. He didn’t get to say I love you to anyone as he died. He had more love than anyone ever knew. He cried as he passed. He regretted so little, yet so much. A genius wasted by the cruelty of life. 

He had wanted kids. Tiny geniuses, running around and being raised by kindness. In a different universe his kids were born. They follow Spencer’s footsteps. That universe showed beauty that the one Spencer died in never had.

JJ was the first to hear about him. She was with Will when she got the call. His mom hadn’t been able to identify the body, but she had. It broke her in a way nothing had before. The man she had loved more than even her husband, nothing but a body. She had seen so many bodies before, she had seen those she loved dead. But Spencer dying took away her last hope. It took her spirit, and she broke down. Love is a fragile thing, it can be broken or formed in a matter of minutes. For JJ her love grew stronger that day. The memories of him stayed with her for the rest of her life. He died alone, but his memory never died. Her son never forgot his Godfather.

Morgan came back for the funeral. He and Gracia cried together. No one wanted to outlive him. 

Death, love, pain,

It's how life is lived, yet in the spaces between those things there is a silence that seems worse than the pain. A silence that comes when a person dies. It takes the light inside of everyone. Spencer Reid’s light was the brightest, a symbol of his dreams. Those dreams died with him. His team tried to keep his memory alive, but his dreams were his own. Dreams can’t be kept alive when someone dies. 

The death of Spencer was not a welcomed thing. He fought till the end, he fought for his dreams. In the end he wasn’t strong enough. 

Is anyone?


End file.
